Tyranids on Terra
by Stormonu
Summary: Discover the horrifying reason for the Tyranids arrival in our galaxy. Written in cahoots with TheHappyTyranid, based on his story of the same name. Expected to be 4-5 chapters Sorry for the delay on getting to this; work has been taking all my time of late.
1. Chapter 1

ONE – TYRANS AT TERRA

Gladius's consciousness slowly rose him from his slumber. Still groggy, his initial realization was that he was being held upright. His second was that he was no longer aboard the barge _Obedience_. Adrenaline pumped throughout his veins as realized that his unarmored body was cocooned against a slowly thrumming, breathing wall.

A nearby hiss alerted him to the presence of two gangly, reptilian creatures nearby. They stood on hoofed legs that brought them at least a foot taller than the over seven foot marine. Unlike the swoop-helmeted warriors Gladius had fought alongside his brothers in the boarding action, these creatures had long, smooth heads that resembled ripe cantaloupes.

One of the six armed creatures reached out to a nearby lump that protruded from the scale-laden floor. With a taloned, three-finger claw it withdrew a black, waving beetle from the slime-filled basin atop the lump. As the creature clomped towards the increasingly struggling marine, it pressed the beetle to its gangly neck. In an instant, the beetle sank its saber-like legs into the sides of the larger creature's throat. The beast staggered and inhaled sharply as blood bubbled up from its throat. The massive creature took a moment to steady itself as its compatriot looked on with disdain.

"Can you understand me?" the creature suddenly stated in a gravelly growl. The spoken words caused the marine to pause a moment from his struggles. In his too-brief encounters and briefings about these creatures called Tyranids, there had never been a glimmer that these voracious creatures were more than cunning animals driven by gluttony.

"What do you want, alien?" Gladius growled back, taking the brief interlude to scan the room for signs of his brothers. He grimaced as he caught sight of their dissected bodies on nearby slabs of lumpy, reptilian flesh protruding from the floor.

"Good," the gaunt creature toothily smiled, straightening to its nine-foot tall height momentarily. It glanced away from the marine to its sulking companion. "Let the overseer know I have made first contact – the organism works," it spoke. The red-skinned creature gave a slight nod and slowly trudged out of the room, not giving its companion or the bound marine a second glance.

The remaining creature returned its gaze back to the marine, lowering its body into a less imposing slouch. Yet despite its lower body shifting back downward into a mass coil of plate-covered flesh, Gladius could still see the hidden point of the ichor-loaded stinger that ended the creature's lower abdomen.

"Do your worst xeno," Gladius spat, "I do not fear you."

"Good," the creature replied. "As an instrument of your emperor, my queen desires that I relay a message to your High Lords of Terra."

"I am no alien's lackey," Gladius defiantly retorted. "I will deliver no message."

The tall creature stepped forward a step, its massive hoof landing inches away from Gladius's bound, naked body.

"You do not get a choice in the matter," the creature remarked with a slow, sad shake of its head. The creature's orange, slitted eyes narrowed on the marine. "Attend, and learn why the Tyranids have come to your galaxy. Perhaps, it will save us all."


	2. Chapter 2

TYRANIDS AT TERRA – TWO

Gladius's face had twisted at the loathsome's creatures words, and as it had lowered down to speak with him, he spat in its face. "There is nothing you could offer us, vermin," he added.

The creature before him did not bother to wipe the spittle away from its hardened hide, and Gladius was somewhat disappointed the creature's thick skin did not smolder. He said nothing, but the tyranid creature seemed to sense his disappointment.

"I am not vermin," the creature stated, "And I have been given a name - Stormblaze, in your tongue," it remarked, finally bothering to wipe away the spittle.

It examined the marine then hissed, catching Gladius's gaze once again. "The acid in your saliva will not harm me," it stated, "your capabilities have been evaluated, so rest assured you will not be able to free yourself until we are ready to let you go."

"Let me go?" the marine smirked, "very well, then finish your monologue so I can 'be freed'", he almost laughed.

"As you wish," the creature remarked, as if taking the pronouncement seriously. "if you have any questions about what I tell you, feel free to inquire and I shall do my best to elaborate on the subject." Gladius did not nod or otherwise make acknowledgement that he understood, but his focus remained upon the creature a foot or so away from him.

"Many of your ages ago," it started, "We dwelled in another galaxy – one quite distant from this one. The name of that galaxy is not important, for it no longer exists," Stormblaze remarked.

"At one time, the race you know as tyranids populated that galaxy, in an empire that spanned from one edge to the other," As Gladius continued to observe the creature's body language, he did not get the impression that this creature was speaking from a recollection of dwelling in such an empire. "Despite the vast distances, the empire was of one mind, for what you call the hive mind interconnected the whole of the empire as one vast entity."

Stormblaze paused, and cocked its head. "Your kind knows all too well what the presence of a mind stirs in that realm known as the warp," it queried.

"Yes," Gladius stated quietly. In truth, he knew that the alternate, chaotic reality known of the Warp allowed the Empire's ships to quickly traverse the void. He was well aware, however, that the twisted warp entities known as daemons sprang from the fevered Id of degenerate minds stirring the eddies and currents of that psuedo-realm.

"Indeed," Stormblaze nodded. "The entities of the warp in your galaxy nearly destroyed your own empire," the creature sagaciously nodded. "You know of the Horus Heresy, and the warp entities that inhabited Horus and turned him and half your kind against your own Emperor."

"A dog we dealt with effectively," Gladius countered, "like we will deal with you." He spoke with narrowed eyes.

"We shall see," Stormblaze merely stated.

When the creature briefly looked away, Gladius allowed himself to grimace. How did this alien creature know of the Heresy? Ten thousand years ago, the Warmaster Horus – trusted general of all of the Emperor's legions of space marines, had fallen to maleficent entities of the Warp and taken half the legions with him. It had been disastrous, and the fall of the Imperium of Man had only been averted at the last possible moment. The cost had nearly been the Emperor's own life. The Emperor existed still, but shackled to his golden throne, which was the only thing that could keep him alive.

Gladius blanked his face as the creature looked back at him. "Our kind faced a similar situation in our early history," Stormblaze spoke. "We were a simpler race then. The hive mind connected entities together, but no one entity ruled over another - it was a collection of singular minds bound together telepathically, not one mind extending through the vast zeitgeist. Warp entities, borne from minds that chafed in resistance to the wills of the greatest Hive Lords manifested in our galaxy and sought to turn our kind against each other."

That information somewhat surprised Gladius. As their battle barge had earlier approached the Tyranid fleet, he had nearly been mentally overwhelmed by the sheer order and overwhelming discipline of the hive mind. As if it were an overwhelming and looming shadow within the warp itself. A presence so powerful, that it had attempted to reach out and incorporate him into it, all the while also attempting to strip him of his humanity in a most sadistic and savage way. It had felt nothing short of an attempt to psychically lobotomize him. Had he not quickly put his own mind in order on their approach, his considerable psychic talent might have been detected by brother Librarian Thaddeus – or he might have been driven mad by the psychic assault against him.

Gladius then also realized he did not feel any psychic presence here in the tyranid's presence. In fact, it was so psychically quiet it was like a void. For so long, he had trained himself to seal his psychic abilities within himself, to hide them from detection, that he hadn't realized there was no latent buzz he had to shut out – nor was there any overwhelming thunder from the presence of the tyranid hive mind – not even a spark from the creature before him.

"Where are we?" Gladius suddenly demanded, "We're not with your fleet, are we?"

"No," the gangly tyranid responded. "We are in transport to our next location."

"Which is – where?" Gladius asked, even as his mind dared to reach out to the tyranid to read the answer if it was reluctant to speak. Instead, Gladius's mind grasped – nothing. It was as if he were speaking to a ventriloquist's puppet.

"In due time, that will be revealed," Stormblaze stated, smiling darkly. "as I stated earlier, we have evaluated your abilities – and prepared for all contingencies."

Gladius harrumphed. "Then continue to regale me with your story, alien," he remarked. "So we can end this farce."

"As you wish," the creature nodded. It paused for a moment, then continued, "Where was I?" It glanced at Gladius's furrowed, frustrated brow and announced. "Ah, I remember. Warp entities – tyranid-spawned daemons began to plague our ordered empire."

"That could not be tolerated," Stormblaze explained. "It was not enough to eliminate the rebellious elements. The source of the rebellious thoughts must be eliminated as well. What the Hive Lords needed was complete, utter obedience."

Gladius frowned. "Is that what brought you here then? You see us as rebelling against your absolute authority?" He sneered.

"No," the tyranid rebuked. "Our path to complete obedience was the catalyst that made what happened next relevant," Stormblaze replied. "It was a precursor to what came next."

"And what was that," Gladius asked, off-hand.

"Understand that all of our 'technology' - even our weapons - are alive," Stormblaze informed Gladius. "In the midst of a war with our own kind, death can be easily contributed to the enemy."

The creature backed away slightly as it continued, "But we were to learn that something else was stalking and killing us, even as we were tearing our own kind apart in a crusade to purge individual thought from our galaxy," it hissed.

"A chaos god?" Gladius dared to ask. Surely, this war the creature spoke of would have attracted the daemon of blood and murder himself to the scene.

"No," Stormblaze spoke in a near-hush, a line of blood dripping from the throat-beetle as he did. "In your galaxy, they are called the C'Tan."

"I do not know of these entities," Gladius stated plainly.

"But you know of their slaves - the Necrons," the creature replied. At the involuntary flex of Gladius's eyebrows, the creature nodded. "Yes. The forever living metal machines. Made soulless by a process perfected by their masters - the star-swallowing C'Tan. Space vampires."

"Space vampires?" Gladius near laughed. "Would you then have me believe the Necron are the walking dead? They are heretical robots, plain and simple."

"They are the walking dead in metal form," the creature replied. "The C'Tan are not simple creatures of flesh and blood. They are mighty, formless creatures that normally feed off the energy of the stars. They devoured the living Necrontyr ages and ages ago."

"We do not know how the Necrontyr garnered the attention of the C'Tan in your galaxy," Stormblaze continued, "But in ours, the growing singular mind did. We were coalescing from a thousand single-celled organisms into a singular, galaxy-sized entity. One from which the C'Tan could gleefully feed, like a horde of Catachan swamp mosquitoes attracted to a new recruit."

Gladius frowned at the human-like reference, but continued to listen. Without missing a beat, the creature before him continued. "Throughout the war, the C'Tan had begun to feed. At some point, they became aware of each other and the more powerful began to attack the weaker - draining not only our essence, but each other's essence as well."

"The war against our own kind finally ended only when the greatest Hive Mind learned and adapted a way to shut out the warp completely - the shadow in the warp - as your kind calls it," the creature sniffed. "The mind of that tyranid became so powerful that it dominated all the others. It created a presence that not only could be felt in the warp, but could push it away. Where the Hive Mind was, the warp could not be. Without a presence to feed upon, the daemons of our galaxy were pushed out of existence."

"But as the Hive Mind coalesced into a singular entity, it became aware of the presence of the remaining C'Tan." Stormblaze paused, licked it needle-toothed filled maw and stated, "We tyranids do not lightly name other beings or recognize individuals. But we gave this C'Tan a name, and in your own tongue that name would translate to The Devourer."

A question formed in Gladius's mind at Stormblaze's statement about individualism, but he kept the thought to himself, for now.

"No longer were C'Tan the tiny biting insects that could do us only slight harm. The remaining entities could deal vicious harm to the tyranid galactic host form. The deadliest of them was The Devourer, who could devour entire star systems in a single breath."

"And The Devourer earned his name among our kind," the creature stated sadly, "As the galaxy spanning tyranid entity moved to snuff out the cancerous C'Tan, the greatest of them struck at the core, central Hive Mind Overlord that controlled all tyranids. The Devourer consumed it and the seven systems it psychically commanded."

"The surviving Hive Lords attempted to re-establish control over the rest of the empire, but to no avail. None of the remaining Hive Lords was strong enough to dominate the others, and none desired to be enslaved as they had under the Great Hive Lord."

"Unable to reassert control over the entire galaxy once again, the surviving tyranids fell prey to the devouring appetites of the great C'tan," Stormblaze remarked. "Some of the Hive Lords, seeing their doom upon them, fled straight away, taking their minions with them and abandoning our galaxy. Others, remained to fight, but the cause was eventually hopeless."

"In the end, The Devourer devoured the remaining lesser C'tan, even as it continued to feed on the thrashing, dying body of the tyranid galactic organism," The creature bowed its head. "Our stellar queen was one of the last to abandon the cause," it stated finally.

"And that is how your universe died?" Gladius sneered. "And you wish to seek asylum in ours as refugees?" he mocked, knowing their kind had stripped half a dozen worlds to bare rock as they careened through his galaxy.

"You misunderstand," Stormblaze replied. "We, as a race have devolved into what you might term gypies - homeless and wandering, taking what we need before we move on again. It is what follows us that should worry you."

"Oh?" Gladius asked somberly.

"The Devourer has devoured the last star of our old galaxy and still needs to feed. It has followed and fed on the tyrannic stragglers the millenniums it took to reach this galaxy. We will merely pass through this galaxy on our way to the next. But it has followed us here as well."

"You xenos scum," Gladius frothed. "You've brought your doom to our galaxy!"

"We did not come this way by chance," the creature warned.

"Are we some sort of haunch of meat then," Gladius scowled, "Thrown behind to delay or throw your beast off your scent?"

"No," the creature retorted, "We sensed a plea - a plea for help," it stated.

"From who?" snarled Gladius.

"Your emperor," the creature replied.


	3. Chapter 3

THREE

Gladius's laugh started as a low chuckle and slowly rose to a raucous, deep laugh.

"A plea, from the Emperor?" he gasped between laughs, "How daft do you think me?"

"I do not lie or exaggerate," Stormblaze replied. He waited until the marine began to calm his laughter before proceeding to talk once again. His tone was clearly annoyed. "It is against my design to present untruths to you. I am to relate only the facts, so that your Terran Lords know we intend no subterfuge."

Gladius shook his head in disbelief. "At the least you are misguided, poor creature. More than likely, your masters have lied to you."

The tyranid shook its head sadly in a nugatory fashion. "If you need proof, Gladius, you need only listen for yourself."

Gladius's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?" he asked. "I hear nothing."

"You do not hear because you have placed a mental fortress around your mind," Stormblaze revealed, "As you have been taught to do so that other psychics may not detect your presence. It is the method by which you meant to hide your abilities from Brother Thaddeus."

Gladius was silent a moment. "I'll not lower my defenses so you can rape my mind," he concluded.

"Lowering your defenses is not required to hear your Emperor's call," the Tyranid rebuffed, leaning in. "You can hear the psychic beacon without being heard in return." When Gladius remained stoic, Stormblaze sighed and added, "We know what your true mission aboard the _Obedience_ was."

Gladius snarled, "I am Gladius of Ultramar, son of Ovestus Prime and child of the Emperor," he stated proudly. "You know nothing of me or my mission."

"I am not speaking to you," Stormblaze stated plainly. "But to the man inside you."

"What do you mean, 'man inside me'?" He asked back, his eyes narrowed. As Stormblaze seemed to examine him with the eyes of surgeon searching for a malignant tumor to remove from a patient, Gladius stopped a chill running through his body. How much did the creature truly know? How much did he dare to reveal?

"I see that can wait," Stormblaze nodded sagaciously and leaned back. "Let me turn back to the Emperor," it stated.

Gladius harrumphed, but said no more.

"Your Emperor emits a psychic force known as the Astronomicon," the tyranid explained, "Your Navigators and Astropaths use it to navigate your ships through the Warp and pass messages from one world to another."

Gladius paused, considering. If the tyranids could detect – and decipher the messages passed through the Warp, what sort of havoc might they wreck…

Stormblaze stated off-handedly, "We can provide your Emperor with a new body."

"Impossible," Gladius retorted, "Even the greatest tech-priests of Mars lacked the ability to repair the Emperor's body. It is only the Golden throne – and his own will that keeps him alive."

"Incorrect," Stormblaze corrected. "The throne keeps your Emperor's mind bound to his shattered body, but it imprisons him as well. You assume we mean to repair his body to its prior state. That is not so. We tyranids not only have the ability to manipulate and recreate various forms of life, we can transfer one being's consciousness from one shell to another – entirely intact."

"Im-impossible," Gladius repeated with a stammer. The thought of transferring the Emperor from his desiccated corpse into an entirely new body had never occurred to him. Surely the priests of Mars had considered such an act if it were possible? However, he shook the thought from his head as he remembered the dark tales of the traitor Abbaddon, who for centuries had attempted – and failed to recreate the body and mind of the traitor Horus.

"Child's play," Stormblaze stated, and then added, "for our kind, at the least. We have been performing such tasks for centuries, if not millenniums."

"None would dare allow your filth near the Emperor," Gladius responded. "We would rather let him die."

"That would be unfortunate," Stormblaze sniffed. "For we believe he alone in this galaxy has the psychic might to defeat the Devourer."

Gladius gave a dismissive exhalation, to which Stormblaze gave a chittering chastisement. "We know your Emperor sits on the cusp of ascending to godhood or daemonhood," Stormblaze stated. "He will either be mankind's salvation or damnation." Stormblaze paused, "Or he could be neither if the Devourer is not stopped." He stated the last menacingly.

"A god or a daemon?" Gladius recoiled, "He is a withered old man who rules a besieged empire," the marine rebuked.

"Do not attempt to deceive me with insincere dogmatic heresy," Stormblaze sniffed. "There are no remaining Emerald Talon marines about to carry on your charade any longer."

"Charade?" Gladius roared in anger.

"Let us then return to you, Brother Gladius," Stormblaze stated calmly. "And your mission aboard the _Obedience._ "

When Gladius clamped his jaw shut, Stormblaze straightened.

"Do not worry marine," the smooth-headed Tyranid consoled. "You have not been unfaithful to the service of your Emperor," as he continued to glance at the reluctant Gladius, he continued, "But you likewise are unaware of your own true nature."

"You speak in riddles, trying to confuse me," Gladius finally retorted.

"Then let me speak plainly," Stormblaze replied locking eyes with the marine.

"You believe yourself to have been an Ultramarine," Stormblaze explained, "Your career marred on the Ultramarine tribute world Ovestus Prime by a history of drunkenness, brawls with your brethren and reports of insubordination against your commander."

Gladius's recollections flickered back to those dark days. Prior to his days as a marine, he had been a bureaucratic monk on Ovestus Prime, spending his days enumerating the Emperor's tithe. His faithful service and daily, martial practices had finally earned him a place among the Ultramarines. The dream of his escape from the bookkeeping drudgery as a monk had only transformed to the drudgery of guard duty overlooking his replacements. The thrill of true combat on the foreign soil of alien planets eluded him as the years passed and he remained in the reserve companies defending the homeworlds of the Ultramarines from the feeble plots of lesser men and petty bureaucrats.

The boredom had driven him seek advancements through the scout ranks and into the main ranks of the marines as quickly as he could. His unquenchable desire to advance, unfortunately, had made him unpopular among the other marines. Those in the ranks above him had learned to grown leery of the marine seeking any chance to advance his own stature, even at the cost of crushing them into the soil beneath him to create a staircase to his own glory.

The whole experience had taken its toll upon the marine. He had taken to heavy drinking to forget his misery – not an easy thing to do with the marine innate ability to neutralize the numbing effects of alchohol - and would lash out at any he felt stood in his way of advancement.

"You began to doubt the divinity of the emperor and the righteousness of your own actions," Stormblaze continued, and Gladius looked away, burning at the truth of the statement. Gladius's early life had been in utter devotion to the Emperor. Early in his life he had discovered his own psionic abilities and through that felt an affinity with the psychically powerful Emperor. Yet the oppressive nature of the Imperium had forced him to keep his abilities hidden and secret, for the fate of lesser psychics was aboard the infamous Black Ships bound to feed the beacon known as the Astronomicon. During his early meditative studies, he secretly honed his abilities. It was by accident he came to read the minds and desires of his brethren. As he did though, it also caused him to realize how petty and self-absorbed many of his comrades were. Those abilities that he at first hesitantly used to gain insight he began to utilize to further his own advancement.

On top of the secrecy of his latent psychic abilities, he had seen his dreams turn to dust each time he embraced them. Gladius began to feel as if the Emperor himself mocked his every attempt to find fulfillment. In time, he came to see the Imperium as little more than an obstacle that placed itself in his way to rob him of the fulfillment he sought – with the Emperor at the head of the entire monster. At first, Gladius had wondered if he was not worthy or had committed some act against the Emperor of which the man had disapproved. Soon, he began to understand that no individual could escape the cold clutches of the apathy of the Imperium.

As Gladius had advanced past and over his brethren, he had come to realize he _was_ better than the others he had surpassed. He _was_ being held back from his true potential, and the Emperor had devised the system that had held him down. It _was_ , at the most basic level, entirely the Emperor's fault. The Emperor, who himself was bound and chained to a gilded throne, unable to lift a finger to affect the empire he had himself built. Gladius had resolved entrapping him would never occur in such a manner.

"After a particular episode in which you humiliated your commander," Stormblaze spoke, awaking the memories in the marine. Inwardly, Gladius smiled. The humiliation had been deliberate, he remembered. The old, one-eyed and battle scarred Ultramarine commander of Ovestus Prime, Governor-Lord Brucius, had stagnated in his throne seated at the crown of the tribute world. The man had prided himself in the bureaucracy he oversaw, dead to the glory that a true marine would have sought. Corruption had become rife among the bureaucratic ranks on the planet, and Gladius was the one who goaded it into outright rebellion. Then, Gladius had quashed it – and revealed the leader of the traitorous forces to be none other than the adjunct to the old man himself. Brucius's last act, before he forcibly retired from his post, was to re-assign the hero Gladius to a combat post.

"You were reassigned to a penance squad among the Emerald Talons," Stormblaze stated, causing the bitter bile in Gladius to rise at the statement. In the end, Brucius had the last laugh. His combat transfer was not only to another chapter as "an advisor", but likewise attached him to a chapter rife with misfits and outcasts rumored to be on the verge of being heretics. Gladius found his advancement once again stymied, for he did not command the marines he found himself attached to. Though the marines were veterans of war in distant and exciting fields of battle, they neither respected nor accepted him; among them he would forever branded an outsider whose accomplishments consisted of battling off sleep outside a bureaucrat's office – even if that accusation were untrue.

"There, among the Talons, you found others with similar feelings," the Tyranid hissed. Gladius said nothing, but he remembered the faces of squad Octavion. His first battle against Eldar had been with them on Yen'Taur IV. Though he had fought valiantly, only his more experienced squadmates saved him from a messy death at the hands of a striking scorpion. He had fared better in their assault on Lycos VII where he had triumphantly led the charge against the final trenches of Boss BrokeToof and literally broken the back of the cyborg alien. By the time the battle barge _Obedience_ had reached Calypso II, he had cast aside his ambitions of advancement and no longer was an outsider to the soldiers of the eighth squad of the second company. His experiences had battle-hardened them, and he had come to think as they did. The marines had even begun to address him as Brother.

"There was talk of mutiny and defection," Stormblaze continued. Gladius remembered those discussions. As the _Obedience_ reached the orbit of the planet Kholestron III, the marine's discussions about honor and duty filled their last dinner onboard. On the planet below, the traitorous planetary governor was rallying his troops in defiance of the Imperial tithe levied against his planet. It was the duty of the marines to ensure fulfilling the planet's right tithe to the Emperor, and remove the rebellious lord. Most of the marines at the table preferred the wars against true alien menaces than against mankind, and balked in being used their own kind.

For Gladius, the scenario brought back memories of the corruption on Ovestus Prime. He too, preferred the war against the aliens, and he spoke openly about his distaste for the oppressive dead and lingering corpse of the empire, itself led by a corpse with no power to direct or control the blind entity. Squad Octavian decided that they would abandon their monastery at the first opportunity and seek out glory for itself – and they found their numbers bolstered by several other marines from other squads aboard the ship.

"Your squad stole the _Obedience_ ," Stormblaze reminded Gladius. The marine remembered it well. As soon as the fighting on Kholestron III had ended with the storming of the palace, word reached the squad that the Governor had taken his own life rather than face the courts and prison of the empire. With the battle ended, squad Octavian and handful other sympathetic marines secretly slipped back aboard the battle barge and quietly slipped into the warp while the remaining Emerald Talons reveled in their victory. Away from their masters, the now-renegade marines pored over star maps to decide where the hand of fate would take them.

"Your band discovered a new tendril of the Tyranid race – one your brethren termed Hive Fleet Echidna," Stormblaze stated somberly. In truth, Gladius remembered, it had been the librarian, Brother Thaddeus, who had felt the psychic presence of the tyranids. The marine had offered to act as the ship's navigator, claiming to use the Astronomicon to guide them to an easy target world to start their xenophobic raids. However, the marines had not realized that the Siren's call of the hive fleet had driven Thaddeus mad until they had dropped out of the warp at the edge of the fleet.

"You goaded them into attacking them – and now here we are," Stormblaze stated dryly. However, it had not been that simple. The psychic static from the fleet had destroyed Brother Thaddeus's mind, rendering safe escape via the warp impossible. The remainder of the marines had frozen in indecision at the crawling size of the Tyranid fleet. Only Gladius had kept his wits. As the exploratory tendrils of a vast bioship probed towards the battle barge, Gladius's response was swift. He took the helm and drove the tiny vessel towards the vast hulk of the bioship even as he commanded those around him to operate the ship's batteries.

As plasma weaponry and torpedoes lanced out from the battle barge to strike the nearing bioship, the huge creature twisted and unleashed a roar that filled the black void of space. At its angry call, the dark mass of the hive fleet began to moving towards its injured, scouting brethren.

In defiance of the size of its enemy, Gladius ordered an assault against the titanic creature. Surely, the only way to destroy it was from the inside. With guns continuing to blaze away, a dozen boarding pods ejected from the _Obedience_ , careening across the blackness to embed themselves in the chitinous hull of the bioship. Gladius's last glimpse of the _Obedience_ before he departed the boarding pod was to see the barge caught in a half-dozen feeler tendrils. Even as the tendrils slid around the ship in a vain attempt to squeeze all life from it, the ship poured all its remaining hate into the hull of the larger ship, ripping a huge gouge into the creature's carapace and ejecting a handful of flailing tyranid forms into the void with the escaping atmosphere.

Gladius remembered the horror and the heroism as the marines fought their way inside. The initial advance was easy – the few worker horrors scuttled away from their advance, knife or power fist easily dispatching them. The practice saved bolter ammunition for the eventual counter-assault.

The response came quickly. Within the span of a few chambers, fast-running gaunts fell upon the marines. Easily dispatched individually, as the minutes passed, their numbers grew, slowing the marine's advance.

Gladius and his squad of six had found some sort of respiratory chamber when they encountered their first real delay. It was clearly a warrior and not a worker, it's head decorated with an arrow-like crest and wielding a bag-like weapon in its lower two arms. The Tyranid's weapon unleashed a gout of green, snot-like paste onto one of the marine's accompanying Gladius. The man went down amid a horrible sizzling sound and by the time he hit the ground the green goo had eaten through the man's chest to the floor below. As the remaining marines leveled their bolter at the creature, a nod from the warrior brought hordes of six-legged gaunts flooding into the room, firing darts from their weapons that were the length of a man's arm from his wrist to his elbow. To Gladius's horror, those darts that missed sprouted tiny limbs to remove themselves from the wall and began to crawl back to the gaunts and reload themselves back into the weapons.

Though the darts bounced and reflected harmlessly off Gladius's armor, the marine found his shots distracted by the hordes of creatures that attempted to assail him. Repeatedly, one of the beasts would leap into his line of fire, its body exploding from the miniature missile hurled from his gun, but protecting the larger creature behind them from a gruesome and well-deserved death. In return, the larger warrior would direct its fire against the marines. Luckily, the marines in return could avoid the slow-moving globules by dodging aside of the deadly fire. Nevertheless, as the firefight continued, the mass of gaunts would cling and grab at the men, making them easier targets for the warrior to hit with its deadly weapon. Too busy with fending off the hordes, Gladius could only watch as the tyranid warrior whittled down their number one by one when the green globules would connect with its bogged down target.

Three of his squadmates remained when one, Brother Shale, pulled a krak grenade from his belt. Before Gladius could protest, Shale shouted, "Remember me brothers!" and rushed through the screaming horde, tearing away those gaunts that attempted to slow or impede him. The Tyranid warrior recoiled too late, trying to bring its weapon to bear against the onrushing marine. Shale wedged the red-tipped grenade between exoskeletal ribs before wrapping his arms around the creature's waist to prevent the creature from pulling the grenade free. As the creature screeched and peeled away at the marine with its remaining free claws, the two of them disappeared in a blossom of red and purple gore and emerald shards of plastisteel armor.

With the warrior dead, the gaunt advanced faltered and the flood of creatures turned to a manageable trickle. Within a minute after the blast, the remaining marines had scoured the respiratory chamber of guants. Gladius remembered leaving a meltabomb in the room to disable what the marine's weapons had not already destroyed before moving on.

Down the maze of twisting, tyranid-infesting living corridors, Gladius and his compatriots eventually encountered the other remaining marines. Of the forty marines that left with the _Indominable_ , less than ten remained. To one degree or another, most of the marines had suffered injuries, but continued to limp on towards their final target – the bioship's psychically empowered brain. Gladius could feel the presence of the alien mind attempting to overwhelm his own. Unlike Brother Thaddeus, he could keep his own mind sane by nullifying his psychic presence to the hunting mind.

Meanwhile, Brother-terminator Gryphon assisted Sergeant Dolmo, whose powerfist-encased arm had been ripped off at the shoulder during a mimetic lictor ambush. Brother Cassius, his left leg lanced by one of the gaunt's needle-like darts, had eschewed his stalker bolter for the plasma gun he had recovered from a fallen brother marine. Brother Decimus, the only other remaining terminator, had armor turned red from the gore of the gaunts he had slain with his lightning claws. Brother Ecton still shouldered squad Octavion's missile launcher, though he had been primarily fighting in the corridors with a jury-rigged bayoneted bolt pistol. Brother Malphon had lost his helmet and left eye in the fighting, but still continued onward with the group's flamer. Brothers Almedes and Typerion ran point, among the few marines who had managed to avoid injury to this point. Hours seemed to drag by as the marines made their way through the maze of corridors, led by the feverish Brother Thaddeus. The librarian had recovered from the initial assault against his mind, but could barely stand even in his power-assisted armor. Yet he could become lucid enough to direct the marines each time they questioned him on where to head next.

Almedes and Typerion were the first to lose their lives as they reached their objective. The hulking beasts beyond the valve-like doors to the Tyrannic bioship's brain skewered the two unexpectedly. Decimus was able to cut down their murderer only to be melted by the room's living cannon defenses. Brother Ecton's missile launcher made short work of the cannon defenses and the remaining marines poured into the room.

The room they entered was easily twenty meters across and at least three decks high. A ring of windows, reminiscent of multi-faceted eyes, covered one curved wall, looking out into the darkness of space. A few feet from the windows, in a rounded pool lay the quivering brain of the bioship. As the marines neared their objective, they unleashed a torrent of weapons fire against the brain. Smaller valve-like doors around the room began to open and Tyranid gaunt began to pour in.

To the marine's dismay, their fire ricocheted or detonated harmlessly before striking the brain itself. Blue ripples of energy shone where ammunition reflected away. The marines continued as long as they could, hoping they might possibly overpower the force reflecting their fire away from the bioship's brain.

As the gaunt descended on the marines, suddenly Brother Librarian Thaddeus seized the sides of his fever-stricken head and unleashed a cry of pain. Then blood spurted from the psyker's eyes, ears and mouth before he collapsed in a fetal ball on the floor.

The remaining marine's fire split between bursts against the now-pulsating brain and the gaunts that descended upon them. Within the span of five heartbeats, the Tyrannic brain suddenly curled upon itself and an armored shield slid over it. As the marines continued to fight and fire, the massive pool began to rise, revealing a serpentine-like body attached to the enormous brain. Directly underneath the hooded skull of the creature, a pair of skeletal jaws protruded and stretched to unleash a bassoon hiss.

The hiss was not only audible, but also burned into the minds of the remaining marines, causing all of them besides Gladius to drop to one knee from the psychic force. Malphon went down amid a gout of flame as the gaunt used the opportunity to tear the marine apart.

As the other gaunt tore at the remaining impaired marines, Gladius was the only one unaffected. His psychic defenses had utterly hidden his mind so that the massive Tyranid's psychic assault had failed to affect him. As Gladius saw the other marines falling to the horde around him, the marine met the intense gaze of the massive psychic marine. As the creature continued to gaze at Gladius, it's wrathful expression slowly turned to curiosity.

Sensing his doom was upon him, Gladius torn down the psychic fortress hiding his mind. Too late, the psychic Tyranid flinched as Gladius's exposed power flooded the room. Every Tyranid creature froze, as if it had turned to stone. The quiescent shield surrounding the serpentine psychic Tyranid collapsed, as if were peeled away from Gladius's position and hurled out the faceted windows behind the creature. With a screech, the creature's massive head pushed the slim body to the ground. Though the creature squirmed and flopped, the meager coils of its serpentine body could not lift the enormous head.

As Gladius's mind continued to unfold and manifest, the marine could feel the nearby fleet recoil defensively as if placed near a burning fire. With single, slow steps, Gladius began to move towards the helpless tyranid, an unearthly glow now radiating from his own body.

"How – how is that possible?" Gladius heard a gurgling voice behind him. "I never sensed…"

The marine glanced over his shoulder to see Thaddeus looking up at him from the blood-soaked deck.

"I am Inquisitor Gladius," the marine replied. "Of Titan."

"Inquisitor?" Brother Thaddeus snarled, the tyranid's hold on his mind slipping away as the power of Gladius's mind held it at bay as if he were baring a blazing firebrand. "You lied to us. Tricked us -"

"My mission was to discover if there were heretics among you," Gladius reprimanded. He glanced at the dead marines around him. "I see no heretics here," he commented, then glanced back to the enormous creature stuggling amid its own serpentine coils. "I see Crusaders who have given their lives to bring down an enemy to the Empire."

"How dare you," Thaddeus snarled, his mind drawing together like a knife unsheathed behind his back, "You hurled us into the fire," he stated, the realization of it churning his face into a snarl, "You sacrificed us! You could have saved us at any time."

"You had to redeem yourselves," Gladius stated coolly. "I will take it from here," he nodded, turning to face the quivering alien creature only a handful of steps away, but helpless to even defend itself.

"You will die here," Thaddeus roared, his mind striking out with such ferocity that his skull shattered from the force, finally killing him.

The blow to Gladius's mind was enough to make him falter. That momentary distraction was all its opponents needed. At the psychic prompt from the Tyrannic creature before him, the Hive Fleet psychically dogpiled the inquisitorial marine, pummeling him into unconsciousness.

As Gladius now stared at Stormblaze, the final memory of those moments flooded back into his mind. "You – you made me blow my cover," he stated to the Tyranid.

The creature grinned slightly and leaned in. "You thought, awakening aboard this new ship, you might be able to conceal that nature," Stormblaze shook his head. "We are far more intelligent than that," it frowned. Where Gladius had sensed nothing, the creature opened its mind for the briefest moment, allowing the awakened Gladius to peek in.

"You …," Gladius realized, "you are that bioship's pilot."


	4. Chapter 4

FOUR – TYRANIDS AT TERRA

"Yes," the lanky tyranid nodded. "I am the bioship you boarded with your brother marines."

As he gazed at the tyranid, his eyebrows scrunched even further and he asked, "You are the _bioship_ , not just its pilot?"

"To answer the latter, the tyranid sniffed, "It is a matter of being one and the same. I was the ship. The pilot, as you refer to it, was the equivalent of ..ah, slipping on shoes," Stormblaze stated, attempting to find an appropriate metaphor.

"I don't believe I understand," Gladius stated.

"No matter, it is otherwise unimportant," Stormblaze stated. "Though we were able to restrain you, your psychic revelation left me injured - derelict," the Tyranid stated. "I was – as your kind might put it, salvaged - and demoted."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Gladius sarcastically snarled.

"I live for the existence of the Queen," Stormblaze stated, then added "Or at least I did before my current assignment."

"And what is your assignment?" Gladius queried, not expecting an answer.

"You," Stormblaze sniffed again. "My staff's research is completed. I have given you my Queen's message and I am to return you home, and then my existence is at an end."

Gladius glanced down at the sinuous bindings that held him against a post of armored flesh. His gaze then fell upon the Tyranid in a knowing glower.

"Very well, Gladius of Titan," Stormblaze sighed. "It is time to release you and take you to your ship. Though I hope you will indulge me to leave me alive to lead you to said vessel, first."

"I make no promises," Gladius stated as the tyranid cut away the bindings with a swipe of its massive claws. "But I would appreciate clothing, if you had that."

"Ah, of course," Stormblaze nodded, stepping back from the freed inquisitor. He curled his lipless maw in disdain and muttered, "This modesty your race possesses is very inefficient. I can understand the need for your metal carapaces in battle," he stated pointing at Gladius's soft flesh. "But this embarrassment in lacking … garments … is – amusing."

"I find it difficult to believe your kind has a sense of humor," Gladius spoke. As Gladius slowly rose to his feet, his muscles aching as if unused for ages, Stormblaze turned to a flat lump of flesh nearby. With the soft brush of the back of his hands, spinnerets at the table's edge quivered and then began to knit a crude approximation of clothing.

"The bodies of the others," Stormblaze asked, nodding to the dismembered corpses in nearby pools of liquid. "Should they be returned to your ship?"

"Yes," Gladius barked before controlling himself. He had no desire to leave the bodies with the tyranids for analysis and incorporation of their genetic material into the swarm. He dared not admit, even to himself, a remaining twinge of brotherhood for the marines who had given their lives in the attempt to thwart the hive fleet. He was determined that their bodies be returned and anointed as martyrs for the Emperor.

"I will see that it is done," Stormblaze nodded, as if understanding. The creature paused and turned back to the fleshy table to retrieve the garment it had woven. Gladius accepted it hesitantly, inspecting it for insectile traces of tyranid organisms, but found none. Warily, he stepped into the slick material. The strange, silk-like material stretched to fit his body, fitting like a multichromatic glove.

"Remarkable material," Gladius replied softly.

"It is based off the method we use for cocooning our kind for long-term transport," Stormblaze stated dismissively. The lumbering, lanky creature moved towards one of the walls and squeezed a large, green ulcer beside what seemed to be a swollen laceration in the wall. Gladius recognized it as a bioengineered door – he'd seen many like it on the ship, but the marine's lack of understanding of the tyranid's architecture had meant they had to force their way through the portals. He had not seen it properly activated before as Stormblaze had done, he and the other members of Octavian squad had forced their way through the doors on the bioship.

"This way to your ship," Stormblaze motioned, standing in the open doorway.

Forcing himself to walk, Gladius complied, eager to leave this room. He doubted the tyranid's being forthright about allowing him to leave so easily, but he was also surprised at how exhausting just walking was. As he left, he noted other tyrannic creatures enter from another formerly unseen doorway and begin collecting the corpses of the slain marine.

Beyond the ventricle doorway, a vein-like corridor stretched out, with arterial passages branching off from it, like inside the branches of a vast tree. Unlike the bioship they had assaulted, the corridors of this ship were quiet and vacant, lacking the scuttle hordes of creatures to attend to the interior of the ship. Likewise, little of this ship's interior was exposed, pulsating flesh. Instead, the interior seemed to be encased in chitinous shell, more like that of the interior of an imperial vessel than a living creature.

As the two made their way down the corridor, Gladius queried. "Are you still the pilot of this bioship?"

"No," Stormblaze spoke frankly. "This ship is different than the other ships in our hive fleet," the tall creature spoke. "It requires an external pilot to guide and control it. That pilot is not me," it stated, shrugging its shoulders, "But it was once a part of me."

As two tall creatures, similar in shape and height to Stormblaze passed behind the two, Gladius queried, "Are all these 'scienctists' aboard once part of you?"

Stormblaze nodded. "We analyzed your ability to fracture your mind into two separate entities and conceal them from one another, for your mission," the tyranid acknowledged, "and augmented it to produce the individuals aboard this ship."

"How many?" Gladius queried.

"I'm not entirely sure," Stormblaze responded with a note of exasperation. "Fifty-four, I believe."

"I cannot sense the mind of the others," Gladius noted.

"Neither can I," Stormblaze stated, obviously annoyed with the revelation. "It makes certain matters – difficult. It has required what you call … trust."

Gladius cocked his head slightly. "Do you trust me?"

"Yes," Stormblaze stated without hesitation. "But that is partly by directive. I have been engineered to assist and inform you, and to do so truthfully."

Gladius stopped midstride and glared at the tyranid. He decided to test that trust. "How do I destroy this ship?" He asked.

Stormblaze stopped his own stride and slowly spun on his hooved heel to gaze at the marine without betraying any emotion. "I am aware of at least thirty-seven ways to do so, twenty-five of which are beyond your current means." Stormblaze replied without missing a beat.

Gladius hesitated. "Which method is the most expedient to me at the moment?" he asked.

"To take the shuttle I am leading you to and ram it into the engines," Stormblaze grinned.

"Tell me a way that doesn't require me to sacrifice myself?" Gladius asked.

Stormblaze sighed, but answered. "Severing the umbilical cord on the sixth level should be sufficient. The wound would cause the ship to bleed to death and leave you with enough time to depart on the shuttle that awaits you."

Gladius considered, and then asked Stormblaze. "Would you stop me?"

"I would be …unhappy," Stormblaze replied, "But no. However, as I am not in mental contact with my brethren I cannot guarantee that the others aboard would stand aside so easily."

Gladius relented. "Tell me, creature – what is this ship you are taking me to?"

"It is a landing craft that was salvaged from the _Obedience,_ " Stormblaze replied. "It lacks a warp drive, but will be sufficient to return you to Terra."

"Lacks a warp drive?" Gladius said aloud to himself, "You mean we are in the Sol system?" When Stormblaze nodded an affirmative, Gladius blanched.

"Impossible," he commented, "We were near the eastern fringe of the galaxy when we first encountered you," Gladius remarked.

"We have been underway, in advance of the main fleet, for a little over a hundred of your Terran years," Stormblaze countered.

"A century?" Gladius queried incredulous at the date. His own internal biological clock seemed to tell him it had been only hours – or perhaps a day – since he had been aboard the ship. Perhaps the creature had an inaccurate sense time as the Imperium counted it.

"Why do I only feel as if hours have passed since our last encounter?" Gladius inquired.

Stormblaze was silent a moment, clearly hesitating to answer. As Gladius continued to glare at the creature, Stormblaze finally relented.

"This is not your original body," he stated.

The shock of the words left the marine temporarily stunned, as if slapped in the face. "Explain," Gladius snarled, remembering their earlier discussion about creating the Emperor a new body.

"You are a creation of the Emperor. A seed of his power, sent out among his children," Stormblaze finally stated. "To live as them and serve among them. It is the only way the Emperor can remained grounded with his subjects – to continue to care and understand them as the centuries pass."

As Gladius continued to carefully listen, Stormblaze continued. "The Emperor cannot abandon his shell entirely, but he can place a mote of himself into another, allowing him to act and work still amid mankind."

"You are not simply an inquisitor," Stormblaze explained to the perplexed Gladius. "You are truly a child of the Emperor, and not just metaphorically."

"That is impossible," Gladius stated, "I do not feel this to be-" but he suddenly stopped, as if realization began to sink in.

Stormblaze nodded. "You feel it now, I trust?" he inquired. "That is what we saw in you as well, and why you were spared. We know you _can_ appear before the Lords of Terra, and they _will_ listen to you."

"But," Stormblaze continued, "The injuries you had sustained in our previous encounter – injuries inflicted by Brother Thaddeus and I, regrettably – left your body a ruin. We barely discovered the truth in time to preserve what remained of you. Had your body died, the mote of the Emperor would have returned to him, and we would have lost this opportunity."

"Instead, he reached out and initiated contact with us. A bargain was struck. As a sign of good faith, we constructed a new body for you and placed it in status until we had arrived at Terra. I was assigned to bring you hither, as penance for my earlier actions. Unfortunately, our method of travel is rather … slow. As you witnessed, it also took some coaxing to reawaken your memories upon revivification."

Gladius glowered, "This is so incredibly impossible," he stammered, "but I can feel the truth of it within me. I would have never thought myself a vessel of the Emperor himself."

"You were to have never known," Stormblaze empathized, "But what can be gained here was too great to let slip by."

"So now that we finished our journey, I was awakened?" Gladius concluded.

"Yes," Stormblaze nodded. "It is time for us to part ways."

"I find it unlikely you have passed the Sol defenses without battle," Gladius growled, "If you are a lone ship it would be impossible to pass the Sentry sensors net that protects the system."

"The Emperor provides," Stormblaze shrugged almost sarcastically as the two reached the cavern-like hangar bay that held a single Aquila landing ship, "Codes, routes, clearances. We currently sit in the asteroid belt between your Holy Terra and Mars."

"This is heresy," Gladius countered as he started to stride towards the ship. "The Emperor would not betray that which he as protected for millennium for a false promise from a xenos!"

"How well can you know the Emperor's mind when you would not open up to it?" Stormblaze countered, walking briskly to keep up, his head bobbing slightly as he cantered after the marine. "The gift we offer is quite real – you are proof enough of that," Stormblaze added, "When you are on your Holy Terra, you can find out these truths for yourself without fear of interference from us."

Stormblaze warned, "But know this. The Emperor is not just dying, Brother Gladius of Titan – so is the Golden Throne. Your Emperor knows this. The priesthood of Mars that tends the throne knows this. The throne has already faltered, and will cease to work – soon. If your Emperor is not saved, this galaxy will fall into darkness, like our home did millennium ago. Either to a thousand cuts from the forces that assail your worlds or from the doom that follows us. If he dies, the fight to save mankind will have been in vain."

"Your honeyed words do not sway me," Gladius countered angrily as he reached the foot of the open cockpit of the lander. "You revived me but not the others. How do I not know this is some trick?"

"Their minds had been scattered into the beyond," Stormblaze stated somberly. "Thaddeus consumed his own mind in his attempt to destroy you. Only your mind had survived to make the transition – whether by your own will or the Emperor's, I cannot say."

With one hand on the ladder, Gladius turned and in a softer voice spoke, "I will consult with the Lords of Terra on what has transpired. And I will meditate on the Emperor. We will see what each has to say."

"Let us hope they share your wisdom," Stormblaze remarked.

"Hope?" Gladius stated, then frowned, looking away towards where he imagined mighty Terra glowed in the black night sky. "Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment, xenos. I suggest you pray instead." He paused, turning back to the cockpit and added, "Your truthfulness in this matter will be far more persuasive than any desires you may have." He stated, climbing into the cockpit. Gladius quickly scanned the controls – everything in the ship seemed to be in order.

"After you have consulted with the Lords of Terra," Stormblaze interrupted Gladius's pre-power check, "Contact us with your decision. The lander has already been programmed to communicate with us when you are ready." He added at last, "May your Emperor protect you."

Gladius nodded quietly. "Goodbye … Stormblaze."

With the bodies of the deceased Emerald Talon marines safely aboard, Gladius closed the cockpit and gripped the controls. The end of the hangar ahead slid open like a great maw, revealing the cluster of asteroids outside the edge of the great ship. As Stormblaze stepped away from the powering up ship, he gave a casual wave to Gladius. The marine hesitated, then gave a slight salute before the ship slid away and out of the bioship.


	5. Chapter 5

FIVE – TYRANIDS AT TERRA

Stormblaze quietly limped into the vast chamber of the Queen of the Enchida fleet. It was an oval chamber with a long, flat tongue-like strand of flesh. The stretched, quivering muscle led to a circular depression in the middle of the angled chamber. Phosphorescent globes brightened as the gangly tyranid strode in and towards the center. As Stormblaze slowly advanced, strands of white, slime-coated flesh slid away from the circular depression and an armor-crested form rose up. Unlike the smaller tyranid that approached it, the chitin-covered form bore twelve elongated limbs that ended in scimitar length claws. The queen's own rising, serpentine mass disappeared into the floor below and made an ant of Stormblaze's own nine-foot height.

The mental command of the queen swept over the room, stopping Stormblaze in his tracks. "Speak," she mentally hissed, the reverberating command causing the worker creatures in the adjacent halls and rooms to scuttle away from the powerful presence behind the command.

Several drops of violet ichor fell to the floor as Stormblaze drooped his head in shame. He did not speak, but instead opened his mind to the queen. The Queen salivated at the thoughts that poured out from the open creature's mind, and without hesitation, she consumed them all, letting the husk that was formerly Stormblaze crumple to the floor below.

As the Queen consumed Stormblaze's thoughts, she saw it all. The discussion, the departure, the waiting. Finally, Stormblaze's bioship received the signal that signified the acceptance of the tyranid's offer, and the ship slowly swung out of the asteroid belt and towards the distant glimmer of Terra.

At the edge of the asteroid belt, it found no less than four Retribution class battleships led by an Emperor class battleship waiting for it. The smaller bioship, no more than a kilometer long itself, was no match for the fire unleashed upon it.

Stormblaze however, had not been aboard as the ship vaporized. He had only received a warning of the ambush moments before it had occurred – too late for the ship to slip away, but just in time to make his own escape aboard a messenger pod. Whether the warning had come from the Emperor himself or Brother Gladius was not clear, but the anguish and betrayal in the warning was clear.

Sated with the memories, the Queen reclined and considered the outcome.

"Very well," she mentally mused to herself, commanding her own resolve down to her servants within her fleet.

"If the humans are determined to destroy themselves, we have learned all we need from them," she cooed to the lesser minds of the fleet. Outside her chamber, her extended senses could see outside her massive bioship to the distant pinprick of light that was Terra. Only a few hours had passed since Stormblaze had fled his own ship. Surely, the humans had not yet had time to change all the codes for the Sol defense platforms, and the tiny ships the humans employed to destroy her child were no match for the gargantuan world devourers of the Queen.

"We now know how to make ourselves invisible to the Devourer," she thought, though with some distaste. She kept the remainder of her thoughts on the subject to herself. Use of the ability would require isolating the minds of herself and her subjects. In the long travel, the hive mind would not exist. She was determined she would only employ it only once the fleet had consumed its fill for travel to the next galaxy, evading the Devourer and leaving it consume whatever was left of this galaxy. She would need to put in precautions to ensure her subjects did not rebel on the long travel to a new home.

She was almost finished with digesting the last of Stormblaze's thoughts when she paused. For a moment, her mind mulled over the information his research of the Emerald Talon's mental remnants had uncovered about the cold, emotionally metallic race know as Necrons – and their destruction of the C'tan within this galaxy.

"Perhaps," she thought, turning to the fragments of gleaned reports of active Necron worlds, "If the humans will not deal with us, perhaps these Necrons may be of use to us."


End file.
